Automatic clothesline



April 3, 1951 s, w, RAY 2,547,777

' AUTOMATIC CLOTHESLINE Filed Oct. 29, 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig. 3.

Sam W. Ra

INVE R.

BY a062 S. W. RAY

AUTOMATIC CLOTHESLINE April 3, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 29. 1948 5am W Ray Fl'g. 5.

INVENTOJR.

Patented Apr. 3, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,547,777 AUTOMATICCLOTHESLINE Sam W. Ray, Dallas, Tex. Application October 29, 1948,Serial No. 57,232

7 Claims. (Cl. 242102) V a V This invention relates to novel and usefulimprovements in clothes line assemblies adapted for outdoor or indooruse. V

An object of this invention is to support a clothes line on a shaftmounted for rotation and axial movement in a housing, a clothes linefixed at its ends attached to said rotative and axially movable shaft,together with means responsive to the release of the relativelystationarily supported end of the clothes line for winding the saidclothes line in a compact manner,

Another object of this invention is to support a clothes line on theabove described shaft, constantly bias the shaft by means of a tortionspring, the force applied by the tortion of the spring rendering a brakemechanism operative this force being obtained by playing out clothesline from the housing, constantly urge the shaft axially by means of acompression spring whereby the clothes line may be automatically woundupon the shaft after the tension on the torsion spring has been at leastpartially released and whereby the winding may take place automaticallyas the shaft is influenced and urged axially by means of the lighterspring.

Another purpose of this invention is to supply an attractive devicewhich is eflicient and durablc, easily installed and which may servemany purposes such as the elimination of clothes drop, sagging line andpermanently hanging lines.

Ancillary objects and features of novelty will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art, in

following the description of the preferred form,

of the invention, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the preferred form of the invention;

Figure 2 is a plan view of the invention shown in Figure 1, showing thesame in use;

Figure 3 is a longitudinal sectional view taken substantially on theline 3 -3 of Figure 1 and in the direction of the arrows;

- Figure 4 is a sectional View taken on line 4-4 of Figure 3 and in thedirection of the-arrows, and;

Figure 5 is an exploded perspective view of the lock mechanism employedin the present invention.

This invention has been developed in order to provide a device whichwill be acceptable to the general public as one productive of safety,attractiveness, durability and dependability. Often, it is unsightly toleave clothes lines operatively positioned in an apartment, basement,outdoors; etc. 'However, the task of removing the lines although notdifiicult is burdensome and tiresome. It is therefore, within thepurview of the present invention to supply such a device which may bereadily adopted, since it automatically winds the clothes line, bymerely unhoo-king one end of the line.

The materials of construction may be many of course, including metal,commercial plastic and any other so desired.

A housing is composed of bosses l0 and I2 respectively with a hollowcenter section 14 connected therebetween. The bosses may have reducedend portions as is obvious from inspection of Figure 3 in order toaccommodate the ends of the hollow center section in overlappingrelation therewith.

A central shaft I6 is mounted within the housing for axial movement aswell as rotative movement, in the openings at the end of the bosses.Drums l8 and 20 respectively are disposed in spaced relation on theshaft, either fixed thereto by any suitable means or formed integraltherewith, as is illustrated in Figure 3. These drums accommodate theends of a line 20 which is flexible in character.

The said line may be formed in one or two pieces, as desired. This is,of course, but a matter of simple choice. However, it is proposed toutilize the played out portion of the line for clamping engagement withconventional hooks 24 and 26 respectively as is seen in Figure 2. Eitherone or more of the desired devices may be utilized at a time, dependingon whether two or morelines are desired or necessary.

The said line extends through suitable openings 30 and 32 respectivelywhich are formed in the hollow center section l4, approximately at theposition of the drums.

A compression spring 36 or other suitable resilient urging means ismounted on one end of the shaft l6, reacting on the housing since it isseated thereon and also reacting on one of the drums," therebytransferring the potential energy of the spring 36 to the shaft foraxial movement thereof.

However, the force of the spring 36 constantly urging the shaft IS in anaxial manner is overcome by the torsional force set up by the tortionend of the shaft l6 and has a number of slots 50 provided therein,serving the purpose of keyways for the keys 52 of a. suitable knob 54.By applying the knob to the shaft in this manner, it is fixed theretowith relation to rotative movement.

A friction brake or clutch is supplied adjacent the knob 54, one or moreteeth 5'5 extending therefrom, forming a portion of the brake or clutch.Viewing Figure 5 it will be seen that the tooth 56 illustrated'isadapted to be enmeshed between a number of teeth 58 formed in the bossl0, adjacent the opening an forming the bearing for the shaft [6.

The operation of the brake or clutch mechanism is as follows:

The spring 36 constantly urges the shaft is axially in the housing. Inorder to limit the axial travel of the shaft 16, a protuberance, in theform of 2. lug or screw 64 is attached to the shaft adjacent the knob 54but interiorly of the housing. This protuberance 64 engages the bossadjacent the opening 60, thereby limiting the axial movement of theshaft.

In this operational position the teeth 56 and 58 are out of engagement.Hence, theline or lines may be played out of the housing winding thespring 38 and engaged in fastening devices such as hooks on an opposite,Wall, post or the like. The lines may then be tightened by rotating theknob 54 in the clockwise direction and they are p.

held tightened by applying axially sufficient force to compress thespring 36 thereby allowing the teeth 55 and 58 to become enmeshed. Thecounterclockwise force created by the tension of the lines sets up africtional bond between the teeth 55 and 58 sufficient to hold the brakemechanism locked. As clothes or the like are hung on the lines thefrictional bond increases due to the additional tension in the lines.

The brake remains in locked position until tension is removed from linesby unhooking them at outer end. Upon relieving the tension on the linesthe frictional bond between tooth 5'5 and teeth 58v is removed andspring 36 again urges shaft l6 axially to original unlocked position,thus allowing energy stored in torsional spring 38 to rotate the shaftIt in a clockwise direction and thereby rewind the lines.

In order to mount the housing, suitable brackets B8 and 10 respectivelymay be disposed on the bosses in and i2 in order to accommodate suitablescrews. This. is however, but a matter of choice, any suitablesupporting means being adapted for use in conjunction with the presentinvention such as sliding brackets permanently mounted on a support wallor surface, whereby the device may be removed at will.

It is apparent that certain variations may be made without departingfrom the spirit of the invention.

Having described the claimed as new is: I

1. A clothes line assembly comprising a housing having spaced openings,a shaft mounted for rotation and axial movement in said housing, a pairof drums fixed to said shaft, a line extending through said openings andsecured at its ends to said drums, resilient means reacting on saidshaft and said housing urging said shaft in a rotative manner, and abrake associated with said shaft and said housing rendered operative bysaid resilient means.

2. The combination of claim 1 and a spring reacting on said housing andsaid shaft of lesser invention, what is efiicacy than said resilientmeans constantly urging said shaft axially to release said brake.

3. The combination of claim 2 and means associated with said shaft forlimiting the axial travel thereof.

4. In a clothes line assembly, a housing having a shaft mounted forrotative movement and axial movement therein, a tortion spring reactingon said shaft and a compression spring reacting on said shaft, saidtortion spring resiliently biasing said shaft in a rotative manner andsaid compression spring urging said shaft in an axial manner, means forretaining a clothes line on said shaft, and a brake mechanism renderedoperative by said tortion spring and rendered inoperative upon releaseof said tortion spring.

5. In a clothes line assembly, a housing having a shaft mounted forrotative movement and axial movement therein, a tortion spring reactingon said shaft and a compression spring reacting on said shaft, saidtortion spring resiliently biasing said shaft in a rotative manner andsaid compression spring urging said shaft in an axial manner, means forretaining a clothes line on said shaft, a brake mechanism renderedoperative by said tortion spring and rendered inoperative upon releaseof said tortion spring, said brake mechanism including teeth associatedwith said housing and at least one tooth associated with said shaftfrictionally retained between said teeth on the housing by the action ofsaid tortion spring, until at least a portion of the potential tortionalenergy stored in said tortion spring is released, whereupon thecompression spring will urge the shaft axially to release said toothfrom said teeth.

6. A clothes line assembly comprising a housing having a shaft axiallymovable and rotatively movable therein, a spring reacting on said shaftand housing, a brake mechanism rendered operative and inoperative inresponse to axial movement of said shaft and associated with said shaftand said housing for preventing rotative movement of said shaft, a lineattached to said shaft and wound therearound so that one end of the linemay be pulled from the housing to thereby rotate said shaft for placingsaid spring under tortional stress.

7. A clothes line assembly comprising a housing having a shaft mountedfor axial movement and rotation therein, teeth adjacent one end of saidshaft and complemental teeth carried by said housing, a spring reactingon said housing and said shaft urging said shaft axially and urging saidteeth in spaced relation relative to each other, a line wound on saidshaft, a tortion spring reacting on said shaft and said housing, saidspringv being stressed when said line is played out of said housing,said teeth adapted to be enmeshed by manually urging said shaft andcompressing said first mentioned spring, and said teeth remainingfrictionally locked in enmeshed relation by the rotative force appliedto said shaft by tension in said line.

SAM W. RAY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 220,793 Bird Oct. 21, 18791,777,784 Cole Oct. 7, 1930 2,206,174 Falk July 2, 1940

